1. Field of the Invention
An assembly used to identify the opposite ends of one of a large number of coaxial cables or like electrical conductors by passing a current through the conductor to activate an indicator unit secured to a remotely disposed end thereby identifying the remote end from what may be hundreds of other conductor ends which are collectively packaged.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the advent of modern computer technology, it is quite common for a variety of business and professional fields to incorporate a plurality of "terminals". Such terminals may each comprise individual computerized hardware incorporating display screens, keyboards or other computer facilities located at a variety of spaced-apart physical locations throughout the physical layout of a given business or professional establishment. Commonly, all of the plurality of terminals are interconnected to a remotely located hardware facility such as a centralized memory bank, printer station, or like computer facilities. When hardware installation of the type set forth above is contemplated, wiring of such facility to the extent of interconnecting the plurality of terminals to the central control facility is accomplished by providing a large "package" of electrical conductors extending from the central control facility to the location for the plurality of terminals. Such a "package" of conductors generally include a very large number, typically in the hundreds, of cables each intended to be connected to separate terminals or like facilities which need to electrically communicate with the central control facility. When interconnecting each of the separate terminals, one or more of the cables are attached at the "terminal end" to the terminal facility. Naturally, for accurate electronic communication, the opposite end of the same coaxial cable must be identified for accurate attachment to the applicable central control facility. The identification of the individual cables has become a well recognized problem in the prior art associated with such technology. Mechanical tags of plastic or like material are frequently applied to each of the hundreds of cables or conductors at opposite ends thereof. The use of this type of marking system contemplates that the cable used at the terminal end of the conductor package will be indicated with an appropriate marking which can be found by mechanically examining the "control end" of the conductor package by physically examining each of the control ends of the conductor cables until a matching marker or tag is located. This procedure is time consuming and less than reliable. During periods of non-use and/or installation such markers are frequently dislodged thereby rendering such a physical marking procedure useless.
Other means of locating an individual cable include the use of one or more electricians physically testing each cable end of sometime hundreds or more cables through conventional electronic instruments to determine the individual cable being utilized. This procedure has been known to take as long as 12 hours and therefore be extremely costly due to the high hourly rate demanded by electricians.
There are several electrical testing devices in the existing art which are well known and include the use of diodes as indicators. The diodes in these devices could be used to identify opposite ends of an electrical conductor, but this is only a secondary function and is only possible when the electrical conductor being tested is relatively short in length and both ends are in the vicinity of the operator. However, these electrical testing devices as currently structured can not be used to locate opposite ends of a 5,000 foot cable where one end of the cable is in a remote location at a distance in the range of 5000 feet. One prior art device is disclosed in Miller, U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,187, which is a pure "cable testing" device. The invention to Miller teaches a device which is primarily used to check for continuity, phasing and shorts in multiple pair cables having a relatively short length. The invention to Miller cannot be used to identify opposite ends of a 1000-5000 foot cable where one end is at some remote location. Similarly, the German Patent to Strack, No. 2,644,134, discloses a "test" device which is used for testing multiple pair conductors for shorts and open circuits. The Strack patent is directed to a device for testing electrical conductors for faults, it is not an identification device for use in locating a remote end of an electrical cable.
Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for effectively identifying one of a large number of cables by indicating a control end of a given cable once the terminal end of that cable has been chosen at some remote location up to 5,000 feet away for interconnection at a given terminal site. Such a facility should be reliable, relatively inexpensive, and operable to accomplish the required identification in a minimum amount of time.